:Race card

The phrase is generally used by people to allege that someone has deliberately and falsely accused another person or group of people of being a racist in order to gain some sort of advantage.{{Cite news|title=Playing the race card: Trump or joker? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/1292973.stm |work=BBC News |date=2001-04-24 |access-date=2008-09-09}} An example of this use of the term occurred during the O. J. Simpson murder case, when critics accused the defense of "playing the race card",{{Cite news|first=DeWayne |last=Wickham |title=Spare Cochran legacy of 'race card' label |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/wickham/2005-04-04-cochran-legacy_x.htm |work=USA Today |date=2005-04-04 |access-date=2008-09-09}} in presenting Mark Fuhrman's past as reasons to draw his credibility as a witness into question.

The Republican Southern Strategy has been characterised as an early example of exploiting racist sentiments for political mobilization and exaggerating the threat of the civil rights movement. Consequently, this strategy facilitated the transformation of the Southern states from a Democratic to Republican political stronghold.{{cite book |last1=Gonzales |first1=Manuel G. |title=Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States |date=20 August 2009 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-35368-9 |page=279 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZLLNbUQ-kAC&dq=southern+strategy+race+card&pg=PA279 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Joseph |first1=Ralina L. |title=Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial |date=2013 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-5292-1 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9BY3L4md8wC&dq=southern+strategy+race+card&pg=PA41 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Hillygus |first1=D. Sunshine |last2=Shields |first2=Todd G. |title=The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Presidential Campaigns |date=24 April 2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-3159-3 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loMDqAdFnAcC&dq=southern+strategy+race+card&pg=PA138 |language=en}}

Stanford Law School professor Richard Thompson Ford has argued that the race card can be played independently of the person making the claim, or the race in question. An example cited was the Hillary Clinton campaign's assertion that Barack Obama won the 2008 Democratic primary in South Carolina owing to the disproportionate number of black registered Democrats in the state, implying more racism in the general population.{{Cite book|last=Ford |first=Richard Thompson |author-link=Richard Thompson Ford |title=The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse |year=2008 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-24575-7 }}

George Dei, et al., in the book Playing the Race Card,{{Cite book|last=Dei |first=George Jerry Sefa |author-link= George Dei|author2=Leeno Luke Karumanchery |author3=Nisha Karumanchery-Luik |title=Playing the Race Card: Exposing White Power and Privilege |edition=1st |date= January 2004 |publisher=Peter Lang USA |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8204-6752-8 |oclc=51266234}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}} argue that the term itself is a rhetorical device used in an effort to devalue and minimize claims of racism.

The phrase has been used to describe racist mobilisations by politicians, as for example with the campaign to elect Peter Griffiths, the Conservative Party candidate for Smethwick in the 1964 UK general election. However, the term was only applied to describe this situation in the 1980s.{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Gary |title=Play the race card |url=https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/play-the-race-card.html |website=The Phrase Finder |publisher=Gary Martin |access-date=30 November 2021}}

In February 2008, Group Chief Editor Wong Chun Wai of The Star wrote, just before the Malaysia general election came, there is an unusual degree of tolerance and flexibility in matters of race, language and religion as politicians try to woo the people. "Also, there are those who still continue to play the race card, in this age and time. At their party conferences each year, they play to the gallery by projecting themselves as the communal heroes. But during the general election, they shamelessly become the true Malaysian leaders we dream of. They greet their voters in Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil; and if they can speak all these languages fluently, they would do so."{{Cite news |first=Wong Chun |last=Wai |title=All for the sake of winning votes |url=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/2/10/focus/20287210&sec=focus |work=The Star |date=2008-02-10 |access-date=2008-09-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604041549/http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2008%2F2%2F10%2Ffocus%2F20287210&sec=focus |archive-date=2011-06-04 }}

In August 2006, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs wrote that Malaysia politician Khairy Jamaluddin "played the race card" by stirring up the Malays and the Chinese Malaysian community. Responding to criticisms and demands for an apology, Khairy said his remarks were misunderstood and he "will not apologize" as he was acting only "in defense of the Malays and his party" and that "if we truly fight for our race, one should not apologize".{{Cite web|title=Use of race card stirs controversy in Malaysia |url=http://www.siiaonline.org/page/insightsDetails/id/2014/ArticleCategoryId/7 |publisher=Singapore Institute of International Affairs |date=2006-08-29 |access-date=2008-09-09}}

• Appeal to motive
• Boerehaat
• Call-out culture
• Identity politics
• Laissez-faire racism
• Race baiting
• Wedge issue
• Woman card
• Weaponization of antisemitism

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Category:African-American-related controversies

Category:American English idioms

Category:Politics and race in the United States

Category:Racism